The F1 thread

[Raid]

In fairness I'd be cautious passing Mazepin too. If he's knocking his own teammate's front wing off by dangerously defending, then what chance do his competitors have?

Not the worst race I've ever seen, it wasn't quite as bad as Monaco, but that's not really saying much. I laughed quite a bit at Bottas ignoring the team's commands to not go for fastest lap, and given that Russell has already said he knows which team he's racing for next year (even if he can't announce it), I think it's a given that Bottas is out the door next year.

[DjchunKfunK]

The commentators did their best to try and make it more exciting than it was but it reminded me a lot of Valencia just with a more interesting track layout. The only overtaking that occurred was when one driver had a massive speed advantage from new tyres or just a better car in the case of Perez. From first down to around 10th it was pretty static all race so we didn't even have midfield drama to make up for a lack of it at the front. I think the fact that the Ferrari and Alpine cars were barely talked about past the first few laps says a lot about what happened this race.

[Rossell]

Silly season ahoy!

[Snowy]

Interesting. So is Vettel or Stroll out of a seat then? Can't imagine it would be Stroll unless daddy is going to buy a seat for him elsewhere, but also can't see why you would drop Vettel for Bottas.

Dull race yesterday, only slightly livened by Bottas' threat of a fastest lap and the Dutch fans making the whole thing one huge party.

[Raid]

Interesting. So is Vettel or Stroll out of a seat then?

Umm, did you get Aston and Alfa mixed up, or am I missing something?

[Raid]

https://www.racefans.net/2021/09/07/off ... s-in-2022/

And there we go, the least surprising driver announcement of the decade.

[Rossell]

Next season is shaping up now.

Gasly and Tsnuoda retain AlphaTauri seats. One Alfa seat and the Haas seats left (Strolls seat at Aston being all but assured).

Edit: oh and the extra Williams seat, doh.

[Drarok]

[Raid]

https://www.racefans.net/2021/09/08/alb ... ifi-stays/

Well, it's a little better I suppose.

It's an interesting move. One of the sticking points when this was rumoured was that Albon was contracted to Red Bull. Red Bull are starting their own power unit operation once Honda leave, with the aim of producing their own power train for 2025. I'm sure Red Bull would *love* to get their hands on Mercedes technical information to benefit their own development. Williams use Mercedes engines. A former Red Bull driver now has access to the Mercedes power train, and will get first hand experience of how it drives. Albon has apparently been released from his Red Bull contract, but they have "an option on his services" in the future.

I'm not exactly leaping to industrial espionage here, I just think it's a bit of an odd move for Williams and Mercedes.

[DjchunKfunK]

I'm not sure how much say Mercedes would have on the drivers Williams chooses, it would be a pretty bad look if they stepped in and said they couldn't sign him because of the issue you raise. I do agree that you would think Williams wouldn't want to do something that might annoy their engine supplier.

[Snowy]

Interesting. So is Vettel or Stroll out of a seat then?

Umm, did you get Aston and Alfa mixed up, or am I missing something?

The former

[Raid]

I'm not sure how much say Mercedes would have on the drivers Williams chooses, it would be a pretty bad look if they stepped in and said they couldn't sign him because of the issue you raise. I do agree that you would think Williams wouldn't want to do something that might annoy their engine supplier.

I doubt Mercedes would have a direct say in Williams' choice of driver, but I suspect there's a lot of indirect clout. Taking away a team's engine supply would be a phenomenally expensive penalty, as the car has to be built around a specific installation, and you can't just bolt a different engine in without a significant redesign.

I imagine there's a legally complex way that the contracts for engine supply stipulate protection for the engine technology, and I would think one of those stipulations would be stopping team members from competitors joining the team without completely severing their connections to that competitor. There's so much money in the R&D for the power units that there has to be legal protection for it.

I think it's all complicated by the fact that Toto Wolff has a personal stake in Williams - he owns shares in both Williams and Aston Martin. How that affects things I'm not entirely sure, but as a shareholder he will have some amount of clout in team decisions.

[DjchunKfunK]

I'm sure they could apply pressure but it's still a bad look to outright step in and say they are taking away the engine because of the driver being signed. I don't think it would have got this far if there were specific stipulations in the engine contract about drivers the team could hire.

[Raid]

That's why I think it's not going to be as explicit as "we will remove your engine supply if you hire x", there'll be clauses that allow the contract to be broken if, say, the engine manufacturer has concerns that their intellectual property rights may be compromised by team decisions.

We basically *never* hear specifics about contracts in F1, all of the legal work goes on behind closed doors, and I bet you there are clauses that stop any action taken from being made public.

[eny]

Eep....

[edit] fuck me, thank god for that halo!